That first moment when life is felt deep within. For a woman it can be an actual reality and experience of life. For a man, it is at the invitation to feel, to touch that place where new life has first made its presence felt. It’s awe-inspiring as the dawning of new life is realised. Life being created deep within a woman’s body. For many now the first scan and seeing the tiny heart beating and body developing enhances that sense of awe and wonder even more! In such moments we glimpse, share, a sense of the divine. We sense otherness and connectedness. We are transformed, lifted up.  When you then add to that the divine, Emmanuel, God becoming one of us, you take it to another level altogether, where that sense of mystery, of awe becomes ever more sacred and precious. A miracle of love. A miracle of life.  

Today’s Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary into heaven and its definition as a Dogma of the Church on 1^st November 1950 is rooted and completely founded on the Incarnation. In the Assumption of Mary to heaven, we celebrate the great, extraordinary and awe-inspiring revelation of this mystery of the faith we profess, that God entered her womb to take on our human flesh and thus the divine and human are one. This great mystery of the Incarnation inspires, motivates and informs Mary being assumed into heaven.

For how could Mary’s body be allowed to dissolve into ashes and dust? Down through the centuries, spiritual writers and theologians have spoken and written of the translation into the heavenly realm of Mary to be with her son and to live with him in his presence. It’s when we meditate, reflect and try to grasp this great mystery that it is indeed fitting and only right that Mary be assumed into heaven. 

Let us pray to fully appreciate and enter into this great drama of God’s love for us and Mary’s unique and precious place in salvation history.